PA Bill Number: HB829
Title: In preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;
Description: An Act amending the act of April 12, 1951 (P.L.90, No.21), known as the Liquor Code, in preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;
Last Action: Signed in House
Last Action Date: Jul 3, 2024
Pennsylvania: Anti-Gun Advocates, officials push for vote on Pa. domestic violence gun confiscation bill :: 09/06/2018
Advocates, lawmakers and law enforcement officers joined together across the state Thursday to support changes in state law that would require some domestic violence offenders to surrender their guns to law enforcement more quickly than required by current law.
If passed into law, House Bill 2060 would require that people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence offenses and those subject to a final protection-from-abuse order relinquish their guns to a law enforcement agency or gun dealer within 24 hours of the conviction or final order.
Current state law allows those convicted of domestic violence offenses 60 days to surrender their firearms, and gives judges the discretion to determine whether the subject of a protection-from-abuse order should turn in his or her guns.
The bill would remove that discretion, so every person subject to a final protection-from-abuse order must relinquish his or her guns until the end of the order, said Jen Partica, co-lead of Pittsburgh’s Moms Demand Action chapter. It would also specify that the guns should be turned over to a law enforcement agency or licensed gun dealers, rather than to a “third-party” friend or relative as allowed in current state law.
“We know domestic violence situations with guns are far more likely to turn deadly for families and for law enforcement who respond to those calls,” Ms. Partica said at a press conference Thursday in the Allegheny County Courthouse. “The presence of a gun makes it five times more likely the woman will be killed.”
Ms. Partica, who noted she is a gun owner, was joined by Allegheny County Sheriff William Mullen, as well as state Rep.Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, and Nicole Molinaro Karaczun, president of the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh.
Mr. Frankel said if the bill is passed in the House, it has a good chance of passing the Senate — which unanimously passed a similar bill in March — and then being signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf. But he noted that the Legislature only has a few days of voting left this year and would need to act quickly.
“Fifty state senators — Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives — saw the value of this Senate bill,” Mr. Frankel said. “The House version of the bill sits ready to be voted on. If the House version is sent to the Senate, we have every indication it will be passed.”
The National Rifle Association has taken a neutral stance on the bill, while the Firearms Owners Against Crime came out against it earlier this year. President Kim Stolfer said Thursday he found the bill to be poorly written and rushed before the November elections.
“We have examined it and there are four pages of mistakes in the bill,” he said. “Everything from due process violations to bureaucratic traps that will force a person into violating the law with no criminal intent.”
Mr. Stolfer is not opposed to the underlying premise that domestic violence abusers should surrender firearms, he said, but he does object to the methods described in the bill — particularly the 24-hour deadline and elimination of third-party safekeeping, which he said has worked well across the state.
“This is basically a gun control bill wrapped in feel-good emotional pleas,” he said.
Shelly Bradbury: 412-263-1999, sbradbury@post-gazette.com or follow @ShellyBradbury on Twitter.
